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Thursday, December 24, 2015

Forward to the Kolkata Plenum by Sitaram Yechury: Article appearing in the forthcoming issue of People's Democracy

Forward to the Kolkata Plenum by Sitaram Yechury

Article appearing in the forthcoming issue of People's Democracy

Sitaram Yechury

THE strengthening of the CPI(M)'s organisational capabilities is of vitalimportance in today's conjuncture to create a better India and significantlyimprove the livelihood status of our people. This can only be achievedthrough the power of people's struggles. The tasks at the forthcomingCPI(M) Plenum on Organisation is to build our Party organisation in such amanner that it shall speedily move towards achieving this objective.

The foundations of the organisation of a Communist Party at all points oftime, necessarily, remain the revolutionary principles of Marxism-Leninism.These include the adherence to principles of democratic centralism;criticism and self-criticism; collective functioning with individualresponsibility etc. However, the Party organisation is a dynamic organism.It cannot exist in a vacuum. Hence, the Communist formulation of'political-organisational' tasks. Therefore, the structure and character ofthe Party organisation at any specific point of time, while based on itsrevolutionary tenets, has to be in tune with the objectives laid out by theParty's current political-tactical line.

The CPI(M) has to accomplish this task today in an international correlationof political forces that has shifted in favour of imperialism since thedisintegration of the former USSR. We had analysed these developments indetail in our 14th Congress and adopted our understanding as to how suchdevelopments took place and its consequences for the Communist movement,both at the international level and for us in India. We had then, protectedour rank and file, by and large, and certain sections of our sympatheticfollowers from these tumultuous developments. However, we had then notedthat these will surely have an impact on the future potential of people'sattraction towards Marxism-Leninism and socialism.

Two decades later this impact is clearly visible. The disintegration of 20thcentury socialism converged with global capitalism's gigantic accumulationof capital and the emergence of the international finance capital leadingthe global neo-liberal offensive. The consequent neo-liberal, ideologicaland material offensive, that continues to intensify, negatively influencedthe Indian youth, apart from, bringing about important structural changes.Imperialist cultural offensive and capitalist consumerism are designed todepoliticise the youth and large sections of the society.

RIGHTWARD SHIFT

IN INDIAN POLITICS

Domestically, the Indian ruling classes, particularly its leadership, thebig bourgeoisie, embraced neo-liberalisation in a world where the bargainingpotential for advancing the development of capitalism in India, between thecold war camps of imperialism and socialism simply vanished. Indian rulingclasses have, hence, virtually abandoned India's traditional foreign policyof non-alignment. With the ruling classes playing second fiddle toimperialism and neo-liberal policies, the anti-imperialist consciousness ofour people eroded considerably, distancing them from progressive ideologiesand thinking.

This rightward shift of the Indian ruling classes prepared the fertileground for the rise of the RSS/BJP with its communal and fascistic agendapursuing its objective of converting a secular democratic India into a HinduRashtra. This rise of communal forces and their capture of the centralgovernment has emboldened a wide range of anti-Communist reactionary forcesin the country.

Combating this communal ideology and offensive hence, becomes essential forthe CPI(M) to consolidate its independent strength and move towards aprogressive shift in the correlation of class forces amongst the Indianpeople. This is a task that needs to be undertaken at all levels -political, ideological and organisational. The Party organisation should beso equipped as to meet the challenges posed by various organisational frontsof Hindutva right wing forces to achieve the objectives we laid down forourselves in our 21st Congress political-tactical line.

STRENGTHENING

PARTY ORGANISATION

Our Party organisation's capabilities must rise to the levels of meeting andovercoming these challenges and successfully uniting the people in strugglesagainst this combined offensive of communalism and neo-liberalism.

Strengthening the Party organisation also becomes all the more importantgiven the concerted attack by the gang up of rightwing reactionary elementsagainst CPI(M) particularly in our stronghold of West Bengal through thepolitics of terror and intimidation. The CPI(M) as a whole, our Party unitsall across the country, must focus on the defence of our strong Leftbastions and outposts of the Indian revolutionary forces.

We are meeting in this Plenum to strengthen our Party organisation in thebackground of having noted in our Party Congress our persistent weaknessesin terms of stagnation if not decline in the strength of our Party and massorganisation membership, its uneven composition and a sharp decline in ourParty's electoral strength.

The CPI(M)'s last Plenum on Organisation was the Salkia plenum held soonafter the 10th Party Congress in December 1978. That was a period when theParty was in its ascendancy and emerged as the strongest Left communistforce in the country. That was also the period when the socialist camp ledby the former USSR was challenging with equal might global imperialism.

Today, in comparison, we are meeting at this organisation plenum in Kolkatawhen the socialist countervailing challenge to imperialism has disintegratedat the global level. We are meeting at a time when the Indian ruling classesare mounting a combined onslaught of the communal and the neo-liberalismoffensive. This converges with the stagnation or decline in our Party'sstrength and influence both inside and outside the parliament.

FORGING

THE LDF

Along with the efforts for increasing its independent strength, the Partyneeds to make efforts to enlarge and strengthen the unity of the Leftparties and forces in the country. The consequent Left unity will be thefulcrum to forge the unity of the Left and democratic forces.

The successful forging of the Left and Democratic Front will be thepre-requisite for forging the People's Democratic Front under the leadershipof the working class. This class front will be the force that willsuccessfully carry out the People's Democratic Revolution in the country.

The successful attainment of these objectives must begin with the forging ofa strong and effective Left and Democratic Front. The LDF was first speltout by the CPI(M) in its 10th Congress as the endeavour to bring about achange in the correlation of class forces, to end a situation in which thepeople are forced to choose only between two bourgeois-landlordparties/combinations, and get imprisoned within the framework of the presentsystem.

The Left and Democratic Front is not to be understood as only an electoralfront, but as a fighting alliance of the forces for an economic andpolitical change by isolating the reactionary ruling classes. The forging ofsuch a Left and Democratic unity, demands an unprecedented growth in theorganisational strength and struggles of all sections of the working people.This in turn requires an enormous growth of the strength of the Party. Thiscan materialise when our Party's links with our people deepen ie, by theParty implementing the mass line - Communists take to people like fish takesto water.

On the basis of such growth of our independent strength, the 21st CongressP-TL (political-tactical line) underlined the importance of united fronttactics in the process of forging the LDF. The revolutionary tactics of theUnited Front have always emphasised the need to combine the principles ofunity and struggle ie, using conflicts within sections of the ruling classparties while uniting with some of them to achieve our immediate objectivesand simultaneously strengthen struggles against the anti-people,anti-working class policies pursued by these very parties. The underlyingaim of united front tactics is always to advance the class struggles bydrawing into our fold the masses who currently may be under the influence ofthe bourgeois parties. The intensification of independent class and massstruggles while utilising the conflicts within the bourgeois parties are twoaspects of the successful implementation of united front tactics.

At the same time, the 21st Congress P-TL also underlined the fact that theCPI(M) must adopt flexible tactics to meet swift changes in the politicalsituation. Further, that electoral tactics should be dovetailed to theprimacy of building the Left and Democratic Front. The Party organisationmust be capable of discharging these tasks.

Further, the CPI(M) has, particularly since our 14th Congress, constantlyemphasised the Leninist principle of "concrete analysis of concreteconditions being the living essence of dialectics." In today's Indianconditions, it is incumbent upon us to note such concrete changes which haveoccurred in these two decades since our 14th Congress. In pursuance of this,the Central Committee had constituted three study groups to study the impactof neo-liberal policies and the changes that were brought about in theworking class, in Indian agriculture and the middle classes. On the basis ofthe findings of these studies, our slogans, the style of work and therequired organisational steps were discussed in our 21st Congress and the CCand some decisions were taken. The required new organisational steps thatneed to be undertaken on this basis have to be taken at this Plenum.

DEFEAT THE COMMUNAL

CHALLENGE

The current communal offensive has to be met in all its dimensions - thepolitical, ideological, social, cultural and educational spheres. Thisrequires an immense growth in our organisational capacities to meet thesechallenges. Ideological and political propaganda material in popular stylewill have to be prepared and disseminated on a large scale. A wide range ofintellectuals, historians, educationists and cultural personalities shouldbe mobilised to bolster this ideological fight against the communal forces.Meeting these tasks and challenges requires of us to strengthen the Partyorganisation both ideologically and politically.

CPI(M)'S ALTERNATIVE

VISION

The CPI(M)'s vision envisages that the resources of our country, both interms of material wealth and human capital must be used through analternative set of policies for building a better India and providing betterlivelihood conditions for the people. At the moment the Indian rulingclasses utilise these resources to further enrich themselves, widening thehiatus between the rich and the poor further and to provide greateropportunities for international finance capital to maximise its profits. Thematerialisation of such a vision however requires that we strengthen ourorganisational capabilities enormously.

This monumental task can only be undertaken by the CPI(M), which must emergewith a renewed vigour streamlining its Party organisation and strengtheningit. This is all the more important in today's concrete conditions when boththese aspects of neo-liberal reforms and rabid communalisation of oursociety merge together as the policy direction of the Indian ruling classes,subserving the interests of imperialism and international finance capital,under this current BJP-led central government.

In this context, it is necessary to remind ourselves again, of the CPI(M)'slegacy during the course of the Indian people's struggle for independenceand subsequent movements. The glorious sacrifices of our comrades, the longlist of our heroic martyrs, are part of our legacy of combating allideological and organisational deviations in emerging as the strongestCommunist force in India. No social transformation is possible, in fact,cannot be conceived, without the vast mass of people belonging to allexploited classes rising in revolt against the exploiting ruling classes. Inthe final analysis, it is the people who make history. Revolutionary historyis no exception. A revolutionary party, the CPI(M), is the vanguard of thispeople's upsurge. This is our historical responsibility. Let us redouble ourresolve to discharge this responsibility at this Kolkata Plenum.